NJ Officials, NY Rabbis caught in Money Laundering scheme

[Loken]

NEWARK -- A New Jersey assemblyman and the mayors of Hoboken and Secaucus were among public officials arrested this morning by FBI agents in an international money laundering and corruption probe that includes rabbis in the Syrian Jewish communities of Deal and Brooklyn.

Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt (R-Ocean), Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell and Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega are among those already brought to the FBI building in Newark. Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini has also been arrested.

A total of 30 people have been taken into custody, officials said.

The arrests are the result of a two-year FBI and IRS probe that began with an investigation of money transfers by members of the Syrian enclaves in Deal and Brooklyn. Those arrested this morning include key religious leaders in the tight-knit, wealthy communities.

The federal investigation then expanded into a public corruption probe.

No indictments have been released, though court appearances are expected later today in U.S. District Court in Newark. Nearly 20 people have already been led into the FBI building in Newark as the sweep continues to unfold in two states.

Agents also raided religious institutions to make arrests and collect information.

The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office and the IRS took out at least three boxes from the Deal Yeshiva, as students were arriving at school. The Deal Yeshiva, on the corner of Brighton and Norwood avenues, is a prestigious religious school in town.

Authorities also searched the Ohel Yaacob synagogue on Ocean Avenue in Deal and removed several boxes.

Assemblyman Van Pelt, 44, is also the mayor of Ocean Township, a post he has held since 1988. He holds degrees from The College of New Jersey (Criminal Justice) and Regent University (Public Policy and Government).

Cammarano, 32, a Democrat, was elected mayor of Hoboken in June. He was elected Hoboken City Councilman-at-Large in 2005. According to his campaign website, Cammarano is an attorney at the law firm of Genova, Burns, & Vernoia, which has offices in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Cammarano previously worked as a law clerk for Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan in Jersey City. He is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association and the Association of the Federal Bar of the State of New Jersey, as well as the bar associations for Hudson, Bergen and Essex Counties. He has also worked as an adjunct professor at Montclair State University.

Elwell, 64, has served for more than two decades as mayor and a member of the town council. Elwell and his council slate recently won victory in their contested Democratic June primary contests. Elwell is the president of a family-owned trucking company. He is a former Secaucus Board of Education member and a decorated Vietnam combat veteran.

[Source(s): http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/nj_officials_ny_rabbis_caught.html, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/07/23/us/AP-NJ-Corruption-Arrests.html?_r=1&hp]

Should just finish the job and nab Corzine, Menendez, Christie, and the rest of them and do us all a favor. Maybe in the sweeping change of offices theres the off chance we won't get another incompetent moron. Nah, It's New Jersey. To get that far you have to have lots of money and be a giant toolbag.

[California Joe]

Now they're saying on the news that some of those suspects are also involved in an illegal human organ trafficking ring. :cantbeli:

[Loken]

Apparently the money was laundered through sources in Israel.
(evil juice at it againp-)?)

To be honest i wonder how many toes were stepped on to pull off a mass-arrest like this. Especially considering the players being arrested.

[Dragunov]

Good job by the FBI. Go hard on these corrupt scumbags.

[JJC]

Now they're saying on the news that some of those suspects are also involved in an illegal human organ trafficking ring. :cantbeli:

Only 1 guy was arrested for that. Supposedly he would pay $10 grand to kidney donors and resell them for $150. I pass by one of the synagogues whose chief rabbi was arrested in this scheme. I guess some people are not satisfied with their $150 thousand salary. p-)

[Connaught Ranger]

Now they're saying on the news that some of those suspects are also involved in an illegal human organ trafficking ring. :cantbeli:

There is also an Israeli involvement in this story from Romania:-

http://www.nineoclock.ro/archive_index.php?page=detalii&categorie=homenews&id=20090720-11565



Human egg trafficking at Bucharest clinic: three arrested

28 people were brought for hearings on warrant Sunday night into Monday morning before prosecutors with the Directorate for Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) part of an inquiry into human egg trafficking.

published in issue 4476 page 1 at 2009-07-20

Three people have been held under preventive arrest for 30 days in human egg trafficking case at the Sabyc Clinic. They are the clinic’s owner, his son and the female employee in charge of customer relations. The action aimed at identifying the members of the ovule trafficking ring unfolded in Bucharest and Ilfov County, where members of the Gendarmerie’s Special Intervention Brigade raided four locations.


Several items, including documents, computers and EUR 200,000 were picked up from the company office, which was sealed off thereafter. Prosecutors also issued a sequester order on two luxury cars owned by the clinic’s owners. Another 28 people are banned from leaving Bucharest, Mediafax reports.

Also, scores of doctors and staff working at the Sabyc private in-vitro fertilisation clinic in Bucharest were heard by DIICOT prosecutors Sunday in the ovule trafficking scandal.

Network members are alleged to have contacted infertile couples from abroad and brought them into Romania, where ovule donors were recruited for in-vitro fertilisations. Prosecutors are hearing several donors suspected to have made available embryonic cells for various amounts of money.


According to the director of the National Agency for Transplants, Victor Zota, the clinic had been operating without authorisation since 2006, as it was only accredited last week. According to Zota, the clinic has been operating in Romania since 1999. ‘It operated legally until 2006, given there was no law enforcing accreditations.

Since 2006 however, they have operated illegally, as they failed to meet accreditation criteria, given the lack of adequate space, among others,’ Zota said. Mediafax quoted people familiar with the probe as saying that the ring also included two Israeli nationals. The female doctor has dual citizenship – Israeli and Polish - according to the same sources. Thirty Israeli citizens who arrived in Bucharest for medical treatments were arrested Sunday on suspicion of being involved in human embryo trafficking. Israel’s Embassy in Romania keeps in touch with Romanian authorities in a bid to find a solution in this case. This is not the first time that the Sabyc Clinic is embroiled in such scandal, as it made the object of similar outrage in Israel too in 2002, when the head rabbi took a stand against Jewish women undergoing fertilisations with foreign ovules.

The Health Ministry tendered a note at the Bucharest’s Prosecutor’s Office as early as 2005, yet, Doctor Miron Harry, owner of the Sabyc Medical Centre, denied the clinic being in any way involved in trafficking with human embryos. The DIICOT investigation, the first of its kind, is underway.

by Sonia Simion (redactia@nineoclock.ro)

Another one for the conspiracy theoristsrofl

Connaught Ranger. :)

[epictetus]

Kudos to the FBI. Lock 'em up and throw away the key.

[Umbro2914]

Good ol' NJ

[dttk0009]

I always get angry when I read about corruption. It's one of the worst crimes, in my eyes. I hope these guys never see the light of day again.

[timetraveller]

If that was plot in the Sopranos , Tony would'a been chuffed

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

Some more info on the cooperating witness Dwek.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aMlokkBtrThw

[timetraveller]

Cammarano is related to the frmer Mafia Don Joe Bonano who died some yrs back

[Winger]

Good ol' NJ

It just never ends. No matter how many times they do this and bag a handful of politicians, more crop seem to crop up. It's like it is in New Jersey's DNA or something.

[Peanut]

Real scumbags. Hope they get locked up for good.

[Blue387]

The Republican assemblyman allegedly got only $15,000.

He should have held out for more money! At least six figures!